The colour of the steel of a modern dairy, the natural tones of oak, fodder and earth and, finally, that of mozzarella, white are the chromatic characteristics of the Fattorie Garofalo Mozzarella Bistrot which opened today – 23 February 2017 – in the Mondadori Megastore in Via Marghera in Milan.

The bistro also extends outside the Mondadori store with two large terraces, and representing  a company history marked by tradition and innovation, as well as the promotion of the values ​​of freshness, naturalness and craftsmanship of buffalo mozzarella in the essential language of a clean design while seeking a balance between the past, present and future, developed by Antonio Zagaria and the Costa Group. And all for a future in which the production of cultural events will be presented in the key of food.

Fattorie Garofalo, now in its third generation, is located in Capua where it leads the entire chain: 10 thousand buffalo, reared in the Caserta area and with a turnover of €70 million generated from the sale of buffalo mozzarella, buffalo meat and salami and green electricity generated from biogas and photovoltaic. Today the company is focused on an ambitious expansion plan in direct food retailing, with investments of around €6 million euro per year.

As part of this expansion the Fattorie Garofalo Mozzarella Bistrot in Via Marghera in Milan will be a strategic hub and become a place for cultural events, facilitated by being located within the Mondadori Megastore, and closely identified with the culinary excellence of Made in Italy.

The guest of honour of the inaugural event will be the chef Rosanna Marziale, who, especially for the occasion, has created the recipe “Mozzarella Marghera”, a show cooking event made possible by the innovative open kitchen with a social table, from where the audience can observe the work of the famous chef while sitting around the table.

Raffaele Garofalo, the chairman of Fattorie Garofalo, said: “This Mozzarella Bistrot, in the middle of a store that draws its strength from the diffusion of culture, will become a place dedicated to the production of cultural events that will have as its theme and central line the typical excellence of food that is ‘Made in Italy’, and which are well represented in the Mediterranean Diet, recognised as an intangible heritage by UNESCO.” “The strength of our products – he added – is also in the often fascinating history that generated them and, like our monumental heritage, every year attracts millions to Italy of tourists from all over the world.”

“Thanks to this collaboration the Mondadori Megastore in Via Marghera will be enhanced with a new space for meeting and conviviality focusing on the excellence of Italy’s culinary tradition. We are delighted to be able to offer visitors to our store in the heart of Milan an even more rewarding cultural offer that can satisfy different needs during the day,” said Mario Resca, the chairman of Mondadori Retail.

On the anniversary of the death of David Bowie and 40 from the release of the film “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, Mondadori Store celebrates the great artist with a special event and exhibition, entitled “DAVID BOWIE – THE REAL FACE”.

On 10 January 2017 at 6.30 pm in the Events Space on the 3^rd floor of the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan there will be an exceptional display of the original cast of the face of David Bowie made in 1975 during the shooting of “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976): the film in which Bowie wore a number of masks and the cast was used by costume designers to ensure a perfect fit. An extraordinary piece that Red Ronnie, after buying it at Sotheby’s in the 1990s, had autographed by David Bowie during a Roxy Bar interview.

A unique event with the extraordinary participation of Red Ronnie and the screening of extracts from “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, a musical performance by Andy Fluon from the Bluvertigo and contributions from the protagonists of the exclusive exhibition “DAVID BOWIE THE REAL FACE” in which artists Andy Fluon, Giovanna Fra, Bianca Lodola, Marco Lodola and Sergio Pappalettera interpret Bowie each in their own style.

The exhibition, part of the St-Art, artist of the month cycle (the cultural project created and promoted by Mondadori Store in collaboration with Milo Goj’s Art Relation), will run until 5 February before continuing at the Teatro Ariston during the Sanremo Festival.

Entitled LuminosaMente, the new light installation at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo is by the artist Marco Lodola. The work, which is on display on the store’s façade, is in the form of a big open book that will illuminate the centre of Milan for the coming months.

LuminosaMente celebrates reading as a vehicle for experience and awareness, an invitation to stop and immerse oneself in the luminous stories we can find in books. The illuminated pages symbolise the passing of life through stories and the discovery of new meanings. Symbols like the moon, the circle, the triangle and the square – esoteric forms belonging to the culture and story of humanity – are the way of life that is revealed to the reader through the books.

“We say that reading provides food for the mind; and this is the inspiration behind the idea of an illuminated book. Our lives are all linked by the common denominators of experience, discovery and illumination. The title of the work, LuminosaMente, indicates the natural need of every human being to know. In a fast-moving world, in which the media bombard us with notions and news, the intention is to attract the attention of people who still don’t appreciate the value of immersing themselves in a luminous story different to their own,” commented Marco Lodola.

LuminosaMente continues the cycle of initiatives created by Mondadori Store to bring people closer to contemporary art which began with “St-Art, artist of the months”, a series that, for over a year, exhibits new young talent and established names in the Mondadori Megastores in Piazza Duomo and Via Marghera in Milan. The project features a number of other activities open to the public, including the exhibition of light sculptures by the artist Marco Lodola, who for Mondadori Store has already produced Eden, the ballerina symbolising life and passion, and Mio Cugino, marking the tenth anniversary of Italy’s World Cup victory.

The initiative is curated and promoted by the artistic agency Avangart Connessioni Creative.

This year Mondadori Store is launching a special competition for customers who buy, during the Christmas season, books, music, films, toys, gift boxes and stationery at one of the 600 stores across Italy or from Mondadoristore.it.

The prizes available include, a book “for life”, with which a lucky reader, drawn from all those who participate in the Mondadori Store initiative, will be able to enrich his or her personal library. The winner will receive directly at home one book every month for 30 years, a total of 360 books,  chosen on the basis of the reader’s preferences.

The Mondadori Store competition also aims to reward Italian families with a gift of one year’s shopping and a year of petrol, two important elements in the family budget. For the first name draw, a coupon worth €8,000 to spend at a preferred supermarket, and, for the second name drawn,  a coupon worth del €4,000 in petrol that can be used at a petrol station chosen by the customer.

Finally, there are also 1,000 Mondadori Store €5 gift cards.

The promotion will run until 8 January, when you buy using the PAYBACK card, one of the products in the 2016 Mondadori Store Christmas Gift Guide, available in stores and online. For full information and rules, please go to Mondadoristore.it.

Rakuten Kobo, one of the world’s leading companies in the eReading sector announced a new initiative “6 novels in search of an author”, using its self-publishing platform, Kobo Writing Life, in collaboration with Mondadori Store, Italy’s most extensive bookstore chain, and PassioneScrittore.it, a portal that provides services for self-publishers. The initiative is aimed at Italian writers who want to rise to the exciting challenge of winning the possibility of realising the dream of a lifetime: being published and distributed.

With the continuous growth of the self-publishing phenomenon, which in recent years has led to publishing successes such as that of Andy Weir, with “The Martian”, and Anna Todd, with “After”, more and more authors are opting for self-publishing. So much so that, according to Bowker, the US government agency that manages the ISBN (International Book Standard Number) for the identification of books,  in the last 12 months the self-publishing sector has grown globally by 21%. It is precisely for this reason that Kobo, that has always paid close attention to the needs of both its readers and innovative publishing developments, has decided to launch an initiative that aims to offer visibility to new generations of Italian creative writers.

“6 novels in search of an author” is a contest with two different sections: on the one hand a “Self-publishing tournament” and, on the other, a “Writing competition”.

For the first category, participants, as well as being over 18, must enrol between 15 November and 15 December 2016. They will need an active account on https://it.kobo.com/writinglife and their work, which should be not less than 200,000 characters (including spaces), must be available on the portal https://store.kobobooks.com/it-it from the moment of enrolment until the end of the tournament, even if they are already available on other platforms. as well as the publication of an extract, of a maximum of 25,000 characters, on Kobo Writing Life by 1 December 2016 and not be in violation of copyright or any other form of intellectual property rights held by third parties. Consequently, the competition will be divided into two parts: a collective review on the pages of the Kobo Store Italia, which, from 21 December 2016 to 20 February 2017 will call on the platform’s readers to vote and comment on all of the work in competition, and a professional review, by a jury of experts, chaired by the literary agent Maria Paola Romeo, that will draw up a shortlist by 30 May 2017.

For the second category, meanwhile, users, only if over 18, can register, again between 15 November and 15 December 2016, and create their own account on https://it.kobo.com/writinglife and by filling in a special form on www.kobowritinglife.it, in which a file in the Word of PDF format can be uploaded. The document must only contain the title and a synopsis of the work, in a total of not more than 5,000 characters, in addition to the complete work, that must be not less than 200,000 characters (including spaces), and that, to be admitted, must also be unpublished, in prose and in Italia, completed at the time of enrolment in the competition and  not be in violation of copyright or any other form of intellectual property rights held by third parties. Subsequently, a jury of experts will select the winners by 30 May 2017.

From a shortlist of 12 finalists, each section will choose three winners, a total of 6 participants, who will receive a publishing contract from Kobo, both for a printed and digital version of their work, along with promotion and distribution on the Kobo Store Italia and the main outlets of the Mondadori Store chain, also through the innovative “Book on demand” service offered by the network.

In addition, until 15 December 2016, to assist all those who would like to participate and to register correctly, a help line will be available on this link.

For more information, please go to: www.kobowritinglife.it

What is Carlo Cracco doing next to Linda Evangelista? And Gualtiero Marchesi alongside Charlotte Rampling?  In the collective imagination, little could be as distant as a chef and a model. Two antithetical worlds,  in opposition but… are they also incompatible? Not if the observation point is fame, notoriety, beauty. When food and its, now immortalised, creators are on the same plain as the image of a beautiful woman. With a keen and deep eye, and at the same time, with an irony that has always characterised him, Bob Krieger proposes his latest work: iCONS. Alongside familiar faces of timeless beauty from fashion and world cinema, which his lens captures with an unmistakable style, Krieger presents the new stars of Made in Italy, the “ambassadors of taste”, of an exquisitely Italian capacity to express the excellence of our food. iCONS is a fun, irreverent and, at the same time, current way of portraying authentic icons of style and passion.

“This show,” says Ferruccio De Bortoli in the preface of the volume iCONS (Electa), “brings together the  Krieger’s photographs of the fashion of the moment, cooking, with the fashion we are familiar with, and of which he is the high priest with a camera instead of scissors. The chefs and the models. A bold approach because the latter, in order to stay on catwalk, have to keep away from the kitchen. But it has within it, a socially useful message, and can be safely described as a small manifesto against anorexia… And in the work of the chefs – who not only satisfy our tastes but with maniacal precision oversee the aesthetics of their dishes – there is an artistic inclination that brings them closer to designers. Bob Krieger’s photographic wit captures the curious expressions of Cracco, Oldani and his colleagues, and offers us again the timeless charm of the most acclaimed models. Krieger has stopped time, with a click. The subjects portrayed give themselves up to him with a surprising abandon. But great photographers also have a hypnotic power.”

The exhibition will be presented, during a special evening,  on 15 November by the chairman of Mondadori Retail, Mario Resca, the inspiration behind “St-Art. Artist of the month. Today’s and tomorrow’s masters on show”, a cultural project designed and promoted by Mondadori Megastore in collaboration with Milo Goj’s Art Relation.  For over a year, at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo 1 and Via Marghera 28, important young talent have alternated with established artists, on collections that aim to draw the public in to contemporary art and, thanks also to accessible prices, enable the general public to begin collecting.

Mondadori Store is once again the “Retalier of the Year Italy 2016-2017” in the “bookstore” category, the leading Italian award based on consumer assessment which, for the third consecutive year, rewards the buying experience offered by Italy’s most extensive chain of bookstores.

Mondadori Store obtained the highest score among the eligible candidates  in the “bookstore” category. Nine main aspects in the buying process were judged by customers who in recent months were asked to express their evaluations: the price/quality ration, price levels, special and promotional offers; service, training and courtesy of staff, assortment, atmosphere and innovation.

With 600 sales outlets across the country, and three different shop formats – Megastore, Bookstore and Point – every year Mondadori Store serves more than 20 million customers, that in addition to books and a variety of other products, offers service from qualified staff and experience in entertainment. This award is an encouragement to Mondadori Retail to continue to offer its clientele an environment that is increasingly stimulating and surprising.

Retailer of the Year is an international award, first launched in 2003 under the name Beste Winkelketen in the Netherlands and  subsequently expanded as Retailer of the Year to Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and, from this year, also Russia.

It has been present in Italy for 9 years, 3 of which with the name “Insegna dell’Anno Italia” (www.insegnadellanno.it). Insegna dell’Anno Italia is an initiative by Q&A Research & Consultancy, organised by SEIC – Studio Orlandini.